Applicant tracking system builder: a hiring pipeline prototype, with Airtable as record
A company hiring a few people a year rarely needs a full applicant tracking system. It needs applications to land in one shared place, a clear set of stages and a way to make sure nobody is left without a reply. Anticode can prototype the pipeline on one device, publish a careers page whose form collects applications, and send each one into Airtable, where your hiring team shares one table. A real ATS earns its place once volume demands it.
The stages of a hiring pipeline
Every team names them differently, but most pipelines move through the same steps. Fix the names and the exit rule for each before you build anything, so "screened" means the same thing to everyone.
- Applied: the application has arrived and been acknowledged.
- Screened: someone has read it against the role's must-haves.
- First interview: a short call, often with the hiring manager.
- Task or second interview: a work sample or a panel.
- Reference and offer: references checked, offer made, terms agreed.
- Hired or Rejected, with a reason and the date the candidate was told.
Two things separate a decent process from a poor one. Every candidate hears back, including those rejected at the first stage. And notes are written against criteria, not impressions, so decisions can be explained later and compared fairly between candidates.
Prototype the pipeline
Ask for the screens a hiring manager would use: "A hiring pipeline prototype for a 40-person software company. Roles with a list of must-have and nice-to-have criteria. A board per role with columns for each stage and candidate cards you drag between them. A candidate page with their answers, a scorecard per interviewer against the criteria, notes and a timeline. A rejection button that requires a reason and marks whether the candidate has been told. A dashboard of days in stage per candidate. Thirty sample candidates with invented names, labelled demo data, saved in this browser."
Walk a recent hire through it with the people who interviewed them. Does the scorecard match how you actually decided? Is there a stage you skip, or one missing? The prototype is the place to find out, cheaply, before you design an Airtable base or choose a product.
Real applications: careers page to Airtable
The working part can be live the same week. Publish a careers page, as a site page or within the app, with an application form. In an app, the contact form takes name, email and a message, and any extra fields you ask for (the role, a portfolio or CV link, right to work, notice period) are added to the message. On a site page, the built-in contact form is name, email and a message only; for set fields, use a custom form with a site function (up to 30 fields). Each application reaches you by email and in your Anticode inbox.
Then switch on the Airtable connector. Each submission is sent once to a table you choose, and from there your team adds a stage field, an owner and interview notes. Airtable's own views give you a board by stage and a filtered list of everyone who hasn't heard back. That's a shared, multi-user record without building one, and it's the setup the recruiting workflow describes in more detail.
Limits, and when to move on
The prototype itself runs in a sandbox: its candidates are invented and its pipeline exists in one browser only, so it can't be where your team actually works. The careers form and Airtable route covers small-scale hiring, but it has no automated candidate emails, no interview scheduling, no job-board posting and no automatic deletion of old applications.
Candidate data is personal data. Decide how long you keep unsuccessful applications, tell candidates on the careers page, and delete them from both Airtable and your Anticode inbox when that time is up. Restrict who can see the base.
Move to a dedicated ATS when you're hiring for several roles at once, need posting to job boards, scheduled interviews and templated emails, or have reporting obligations on diversity or process. If you want a custom one, the Next.js export gives a developer sign-in, roles, an admin area with two-factor sign-in and an audit log as a base, with the pipeline tables built on top.
Questions people ask
Is Anticode an applicant tracking system builder for a whole team?
Not on its own. It builds the prototype and the careers form; Airtable, fed by the connector, is the shared record your team works in.
Can candidates upload their CVs?
No. Forms have no file uploads, so ask for a link instead.
Will candidates get an automatic reply?
They see a thank-you message after sending. Replies about the outcome are sent by you.
Do I need an ATS to hire my first employee?
Usually not. A clear set of stages, a shared table and a habit of replying to everyone go a long way.